When we were all done, and the notes were filled, I sighed as I straightened the cards up. This was it. It was hard for anyone to ask some nice questions, so they mostly just inquired about simple things and who could blame them. Being kidnapped by a pirate and being held hostage until you willing join his crew isn't the best first impression.

I stood and straigtened my back before walking over to the cell door to inform the pirate we were ready, but upon him opening the cell-door I was shocked to see at least fifty dozen pirates waiting for us. Right, security.

"We're ready," I said to the pirate in front of me who's facial features were scattered by scars.

They ordered us to walk out one by one in an orderly fashion and each time you passed the doors of the prison you'd receive your own pair of handcuffs. Maybe it was just me, but these seems to pinch and bite at my skin more than the last ones. I was pushed to the front of everyone and had two pirates on either side of me. I'd give a faint glance back to see how the rest of my people were getting along; that was when Weathergirl met my gaze and gave a reasurring nod back that everything will go as planned.

I turned to look ahead when I spotted ShadowMaster77 at the end of the hallway. He didn't stay long for the pirate beside me to notice him, but he quickly nodded my way and walked out of sight. I instantly paniced, measuring the pro and cons against me. After Yaya left the room, I really didn't know what she told Hondo and now, seeing ShadowMaster, I was about as unsure as ever. Did she sell us out and was he trying to warn me of that, or was that a sign to proceed? I wanted to know so badly, and it didn't help when I saw AaylaKitofNiflheim and Sithlord8665 standing beside each other and each giving me the same eerie nod that ShadowMaster had.

I kawned at the inside of my gum anxiously. Yaya is one of us, granted she did join the pirates, but she remembers the memories we all shared together. There's a possibility she won't sell us out and if she had, she would of sold AaylaKit, Sithlord, and ShadowMaster out as well.

I sucked in a deep, greedy breath of relief. She hadn't sold us out afterall; or else I wouldn't of seen our spies hanging around. Finally, things could proceed.

We walked into the main heart of 'Hondo's Corner', and the pirates directed the audience to their seats and later formed a secure circle around the lot. Their blasters set to kill.

"Ah, are you ready, Kale?" Hondo approached me and slapped my shoulder, hard.

I rubbed a circle around the spot he hit and could feel a bruise forming, "As I'll ever be."

"Good!" He snapped his fingers and suddenly a theme song came on and he pushed me towards the stage. Arnold turned the camera on me and I did my usual hostise smile. "Welcome to 'Question Corner'-" I cringed, "I mean, 'Hondo's Corner'." I walked over to the cargo box and sat down. Since Hondo didn't want to pay anymore money on the set, he didn't buy any actual chairs, but he didn't mind paying some money for a great guest chair; which he'd be seated in.

"I've come out of retirement and-" I trail off as I catch sight of Hondo from the corner of my eye, motioning me to pick it up a little, "This week is Hondo." I jabbed a thumb towards the pirate strolling on stage as he waved to the crowd and high fived a few of his men as he passed them by.

Sitting down, he laid his ankle on his knee and leaned back into his big, comfy chair; and as I watched from my dinky, little cargo box, I felt seat envious.

"Welcome to 'Hondo's Corner', Hondo." I sighed, crossing my legs and leaning my chin against my hand, "It's a pleasure having you here."

"I know it is."

"Well, I know everyone is happy to have you here." I did my classic turn to the crowd and have them cheer, but it was really just a few pathetic claps and coughs. Lucky for me, his crew members picked up whatever slack the audience gave and Hondo appeared pleased.

"Let's get onto the questions then, shall we." I shuffled the cards in my hand and plucked the first card from the top, "From 'JenthGrek710', 'Where did you get the name for your pet, Pilf Mukmuk?"

He smiled, "Well, Mukmuk means sidekick, or in other words, guardian angel."

"And what about Pilf?" I raised a brow.

"Ah. I liked the sound of it." He chuckled.

I grabbed another card and read aloud, "From 'NobelMeta', 'Why do you wear your goggles?"

Upon the question, he began to fiddle with the goggles wrapped about his neck, "When you travel in dusty area's like Florrum, Sriluur you need a pair of these to keep the dust out of your eyes."

"Understandable," I then read, "Emerald.H' asks, 'What would you rather be attacked by? Her evil cat Coral or a goldfish?"

"The cat, of course." He replied, and then further explained, "If I were attacked by the goldfish, then no one would believe me and it wouldn't come to be a very good story to tell, now would it." He laughed, "And when you can't tell a good story, oh well, then just forget it!"

I paused and look around us, "Uh." I bit my lower bit and continued to look around.

"What?" Hondo asked.

I pulled down a little on my beanie cap and scratched my temple, "Well, uh, usually when someone in the audience says something like that...then something happens. Like the cat should of attacked you." I still searched around me and then looked at Emerald in the crowd. She looked about as distraught as I was.

"Oh, a cat?"

"Yeah," I looked up at him, curiously, "you saw it?"

"Black, furry little thing with an evil glare? Ah, I trapped the annoying little pesk. It's fun to have in the office, too, when you rattle it's cage." He and all the pirates in the room began to chuckle. I look to my left and saw John, my time keeper, shaking his head disappointingly, then I saw Emerald, who was being held back in her seat by Weathergirl and JediChick; looking like she were ready to murder Hondo.

"Okay," I grabbed another card, "From 'Weathergirl17248', 'Hondo, if a Ginger-Ninja attacked you, what would you do?"

"Kill it." he shrugged, "I don't really know what a Ginger-Ninja is, so next question."

I quickly switched to another card, "Our last question. From 'Purplewillowtree', 'If you could be anything you wanted besides a blood thirsty pirate, what would you be?"

Hondo sat straighter in his seat and laughed, "Well, I'd be a very rich billionair! Yes, that is what I'd be!"

I put the cards off to the right of my cargo box seat and turned to the camera, "Well, that's it 'till next next and remember-"

"Now for our comedy act!" Hondo raised his hand and pointed to the right and I looked behind me to see a spotlight was put on a very familiar droid. 2-2-7! Oh, how I wanted to give the poor guy a hug; I hadn't even thought about his capture and how it would effect him. He looked worn down, his clean metal was all dirty and gunked up, he slouched like a humpback, and his body twitched from the large amount of electricity running through his circuts; since the pirates shocked him endlessly until he stepped on stage and came forward to the mic.

I had a similiar filling Emerald.H had about her pet cat, Coral. 2-2-7 was like my baby, practically, and so I was torn between ripping Hondo's heart out and giving 2-2-7 a long over due embrace.

"Hello, everyone." the droid waved tediously, "Today, I have a joke to you." He groaned, "I mean, for you."

"Upon entering a little country store, the stranger noticed a sign warning, "Danger. Beware of dog." posted on the glass door. Inside, he noticed a harmless old hound dog asleep on the floor beside the cash register.

"Is that the dog folks are supposed to beware of?" he asked the owner.

"Yep, that's him," came the reply.

The stranger couldn't help but be amused. "That certainly doesn't look like a dangerous dog to me. Why in the world would you post that sign?"

"Because," the owner explained, "Before I posted that sign, people kept tripping over him."

Hondo and his crewmembers all broke out laughing.

When 2-2-7's joke was over, his limbs began to furiously shake again which made me want to punch the laughing Hondo on sight. Heck, I wanted to take all of them on, all of these dumb-laughing pirates who found this amusing. They were the ones who should be prisoners! Prisoners to the Republic, prisoners to the Separatists; I really don't care who, but these guys didn't deserve to thrive on life!

"Well, that is the end of 'Hondo's Corner'." I eyed Hondo to make sure what I said was true and when he didn't object, I continued on, "Join us next week and we'll be glad to see who our next guest is."

Arnold announced that we were off air and I sprinted from my seat and up towards 2-2-7, but a pirate stopped me just when I was fingertips away from him.

"The droid has other things to do." He told me.

He pushed me back with his spear, but I refused to comply. "2-2-7!" I called.

2-2-7 turned around and upon seeing me he pushed back the pirates leading him away and troddled towards me. "Miss Kale!" He yelped, "Oh, I was so worried!" He tried to grab at my hand, but the pirates pulled him back by the arms, "Don't let them take me, Miss Kale! Miss Kale, PLEASE!" He was then dragged to the other room and all I heard was the echo's of his cracking voice screaming out my name.

I barely held back tears when the pirate in front of me pushed me back, and another latched onto my wrist a pair hand-cuffs. "Move." He shoved me the other way and pushed me towards the front of the crowd. With everyone behind me and many pirates to call a platoon, I took in a deep breath; feeling even more relieved that this plan was going through as planned. If we get out of here, we could get 2-2-7 out as well.

NobelMeta, Gamergirl052, Purplewillowtrees, and JenthGrek710 made their way to the front and stood only a foot of a distance from the four pirates behind me. I had two standing on either side of my person and I only passed glances between the two men and my friends until Gamergirl gave the nod.

She turned and socked NobelMeta in the face, "Watch where you're going!" she further shoved him back by the shoulders and NobelMeta stumbled backwards before straightening himself and pushing back at her. Purplewillow came up from behind and held Gamergirl down by linking her elbows behind her back.

JenthGrek later jumped ontop of Purplewillow's back and smeared her palms against her victim's eyes. "Leave her alone!" This made Purplewillow release Gamergirl which allowed the teen to continue tackling NobelMeta. The four pirates behind me rushed to break up the fight leaving me to the two pirates.

I instantly hooked my handcuffs around the back of the pirates neck, pulled him down to jab my knee several times into his nose. Then I swung around and blocked the other pirate's blaster from hitting me square in the chest and later threw the side of my handcuffs against his right temple before I darted away.

"Get her!" one of the four pirates screamed, but I kept running and I never looked back. I got down to the end of the corridor and my feet skid underneath me as I took a sharp turn to the left. I didn't get far when I skidded to a stop, becuase I saw an estimate of seven other pirates down that hallway.

"Hey, you're not suppose to be out of your cell." A crew-member with an eye-patch pointed at me and stood up from his chair.

I turned on my heels to run the other way and blaster bullets followed in pursuit. They sped passed my head and I wanted to run in more of a zig-zag pattern, but that meant they could have the chance of catching up to me, so I ran as fast as I could until I made it to the end this corridor.

It was just my luck that with all the wracket, Hondo came out of office with his blaster in hands; but I was behind him, so I finally had an upper hand in the scenario. I leaped onto his back, wrapped my cuffs around his neck, and pulled him backwards to make him more level with my height. I jerked the chain around his throat until he dropped his blaster from his tight grip. I was reaching down for the weapon when the captain slammed his heel into my foot, threw his elbow into my ribcage, and released himself from my clutches. I toddled back a several steps and held my side in pain, but then brought my fists up to defend myself.

Hondo himself rubbed at his neck a few times, but then did the same as I and prepared for a fistfight. But he even didn't have to throw one blow, because two of his crewmembers AaylaKitofNiflhiem and Sithlord8665 grabbed me by the elbows and held me back as ShadowMaster77 stepped in front of me and socked me in the stomach. "Let me go! Please!" I seethed threw clenched teeth.

"Oh, Kale." Hondo shook his head as he plucked his blaster up off the ground and turned it to where the butt of the gun was facing me, "You put me in a very difficult position." his shoulders rose and fell before he slammed his gun against my temple and everything started to fade to black.

I woke up in a similiar position as I once did before, chained to a wall with everyone huddling around me. But this time they were in a much better mood. I looked to my left and saw NobelMeta, Gamergirl, Purplewillow, and JenthGrek all tied up in a similiar bind as I.

JenthGrek shifted her shoulders around and groaned, "How do you take it, Miss Kale?"

"Just try to ignore it. Think of...happy thoughts." I mused.

NobelMeta tried to find himself a good position on the floor, but could hardly move against the clunkly chains, "Optimistic."

Ignoring him, I looked up at Weathergirl and asked, "Did it work?"

She bent down to my level and nodded, whispering, "Hondo was raving about how this was the start of a new crew. Apparently, he took off Sithlord, AaylaKit, and ShadowMaster's ankle-bracelets almost immediately after they lugged you away."

I smiled to myself. This is a start.