Chapter 3
A Very Awkward Moment

"Oh yes, master!" Maximus said, in a meek and somewhat nasally blocked voice, "Genius evil plots, super genius evil plots." Then he made a clicking sound with his tongue, imitating the click that was made when Minimus's head spun round. "Which failed!" he growled, nastily, in a rough and sarcastic voice, like Minimus's evil voice. Then he clicked his tongue again. "Oh, I mean, yes, your evilness," he said in the meek voice, "Ooh, you're definitely the most evil genius in the galaxy!"

"That's better!" Maximus said, this time speaking in his normal voice, "A Supreme Evil Overlord such as myself does not stand for such criticism!"

He was playing with his ceramic ducks. For a Supreme Evil Overlord, Maximus I.Q. had some rather unusual idiosyncrasies, the principal one being ducks. He loved ducks.

"Well maybe you need it!" he said in Minimus's evil voice, moving the duck in his left hand, which he had dressed in a tiny grey tunic with puffed out black sleeves, like the outfit Minimus always wore, "After all those times Atomic Betty helped you screw up!"

"Fool!" Maximus said in his normal voice, this time acting with the other duck, which was dressed in a minute version of his red robe, "NEVER say that to an evil genius! I am the Supreme Overlord! I do not make foolish mistakes!"

He gave the Minimus-representing duck a series of sharp smacks with the Maximus-representing duck, although not too hard so not to chip them.

It made him feel better in a way, to re-enact those humorous moments when Minimus would get his just desserts for making sarcastic remarks. But then again, it just wasn't quite the same as real life. Maximus's hand missed the feeling of a good thwack on Minimus's swivel-head. Then he had the amusement of watching it spin round for ages and seeing Minimus looking dizzy afterwards.

He gave the duck another shove with the other one, but it still wasn't the same.

Just then, Maximus heard his doorbell ring.

"MINIMUS!" bellowed Maximus, "Go and get that, you lazy slugworm!" Then he remembered. Putting down his ceramic ducks, he stood up and stomped down from his quarters, scolding himself for even letting Minimus go on a vacation in the first place. He grabbed a model three death ray from his technology depository on the way. Couldn't be too careful with visitors.

Who would even ring his doorbell, anyway? The only people who ever visited him were the galactic postal service, and once in a while his father Max Sr. But post came in the evening, and it was the middle of the afternoon. And when Max Sr. visited, he never bothered to ring the doorbell, he would just crash his spaceship through the wall of the citadel. Talk about Maximus's exhaustingly long damages list. Besides, Max Sr. was in jail, so it couldn't be him. Thank goodness, thought Maximus, with a grimace, as he strode down the hallway. So who could it be?

He reached the double doors of his citadel and opened them. Then he gasped! Standing on his doormat with a nervous look on her face was a person Maximus never thought he would see again.

She was about half his height, with green skin and fluffy white hair, and she was tapping her foot nervously on the floor. Her ears were long and pointy (kind of like his) and her nose was large and green. She was wearing white gloves and a purple dress with a little white here and there.

And swinging from her hand was...no...it couldn't be...

Not Zulia's dreaded handbag!

Maximus took a step back. He could almost still feel the bruises he had got when she had whacked him with it before. It brought shivers to his whiskers when he so much as thought about it. What was she doing at his citadel!? He raised the death ray and pointed it at her with shaking hands, but didn't fire. "W-what do you want?" he demanded.

Having just been threatened with a death ray by the person she had had secret feelings for, Zulia scowled and put her hands on her hips. "Fine!" she huffed, turning away from Maximus and stomping back down the platform from his front door, "You can just forget about that date I had in mind!"

That hit him like a blow to the stomach. "DATE!?" Maximus exclaimed, "WHAT!?"

Zulia turned round. "I came here to ask you if you would go on a date with me," she confessed, "But forget it." She turned away from him and walked down the platform, leaving Maximus standing there with his mouth open in shock.

"Wait, what did you just say?" he demanded, running after her.

Zulia sighed. Without turning round, she repeated her sentence a third time.

Maximus blinked. "Are you honestly saying you want to go on a date with me?"

"Yes," Zulia said, turning around but avoiding eye contact with him, "If you must know, I kind of missed you."

Maximus stood there frozen for a second, not quite sure what to say. Then he remembered who he was. Supreme Evil Overlord.

He forced his face into an evil smirk, but it was difficult.

"A date? With you?"

He gave a laugh that sounded horribly forced.

"You must be out of your mind! Why would I waste my time participating in such triviality!?"

Zulia sighed sadly.

"I am the Supreme Evil Overlord! I have worlds to crush, galaxies to enslave, an entire universe to plunge under my control!" declared Maximus, in a decidedly cruel tone, "I do not waste my time in petty love affairs! And as for you, I have never missed you in the slightest!" His stomach churned as he said that. Even for Maximus, that was astonishingly cruel.

Zulia crossed her arms. "Fine!" she said, in her matter-of-fact tone, refusing to meet his eyes, "Have it your way. When I said I missed you and wanted to go on a date, what I really meant was: I don't miss you at all, and I never want to see you again, either!"

"Good!"

"Fine!"

Zulia stuck her chin up and marched back down the landing pad without looking back. Well that went well, she thought, dully. Of course, this was exactly what she had expected. It wasn't as if she had thought he was going to say yes.

Maximus threw out his chest and marched back down to the entrance in a very Supreme-Evil-Overlord-like way. Women! he thought, crossly, as he strode back inside.

But as he glanced back, he couldn't help noticing the hurt look on Zulia's face. He felt a pang of guilt.

He had done the right thing...hadn't he?

A/N

Ooh, cliffhanger! Will Maximus regret his rejection, or will he continue being cold and heartless and his gift with ladies never be put to use?