Maxine entered the bedroom and spotted Max and Logan in an interesting position. She'd never seen anyone do such a thing. On their knees, hands clasped together... it was quite a curious sight to her. She shook her head and tapped Max on the shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

"Uh... praying." Max answered nervously. "Praying... praying for... a - a - clean house."

"Now that you mention it, this place could use a sprucing up." Maxine said, then clapped her hands together. "You stay right here and I'll get the Lemon Pledge!"

She ran from the room, giddy as a schoolgirl. Logan turned to Max.

"A clean house?"

"Well, I figured that if I told her we were praying for her untimely death, she may have tweaked out!"

Logan looked toward his closet and gulped. "Just don't let her in there."

"Why? Is there a shrine to me or something? Or maybe a shrine of yourself, you egomaniac?" Max asked and walked over to the closet.

"I'm telling you, don't open that door..."

"It is, isn't it? It's a shrine to you."

Then she opened the door. And all hell broke loose. A sea of dirty clothes and various nick knacks from every time period spewed out of the closet and completely covered Max. She was about to make a crack about the kitchen sink, but that spilled out next to her.

"I told you." Logan said and walked over, then began throwing the various CDs and dirty sweaters off of Max. Fifteen minutes later, he found her foot. Twenty minutes later came the torso... then, before he could find her face, Maxine burst through the door.

"I cleaned the kitchen and - OH MY GOD!"

"Whafs 'appening?" Max's muffled voice came from under the pile of junk.

Maxine's eye began to twitch as she walked toward Logan and the mess. She stood over it for a moment, then pushed Logan aside roughly. She roughly threw the Lemon Pledge at him and told him to clean to living room. He looked at the pile of junk where Max was located, then one deathlook from Maxine sent him flying out of the bedroom.

Logan sprinted to the kitchen, losing the Lemon Pledge along the way. He reached the edge of the kitchen and looked at the phone longingly. He didn't know why Maxine had moved it... until he rushed into the kitchen and slipped on its newly waxed surface and landed with a crash onto the floor. He rubbed the back of his head and tried to sit up, but it was no use.

"Cat's in the cradle... silver spoons..." He mumbled before he passed out.

Meanwhile, in the bedroom, Maxine had unearthed Max. She looked at her quizzically for a moment then pulled her out of the remaining debris.

"How did you get caught in there?"

"It's a long story that has to do with the Shrine of Logan." Max said and pulled a pipe cleaner from her hair. It was red in case you were wondering.

Maxine shoved the broom in Max's arms. "Go and sweep by the front door. I've got work to do!"

Max nodded and quickly left the bedroom. She searched high for Logan, then when she had no luck with that, she decided to start searching low. She walked into the kitchen, and like Logan, fell backward. Only she has a very hard genetically engineered head, so she didn't pass out. She turned to Logan... hey. She found him. Low. See? Searching high and low does work.

"Logan... wake up..."

Logan groaned and turned his head, but his eyes didn't open. Max sat and thought for a moment. What would wake him? What would cause his eyes to open in a flash? What would - ehehehe.

"Logan, I'm going to spill some water on... your computers!"

And that indeed get Logan to open his eyes. He reached out for Max, hoping to latch onto to her to keep her from destroying his years of hard work. She chuckled and stood up, then helped him to his feet.

"Aren't you two supposed to be cleaning?"

The pair squealed like little girls and whipped around to - fall again. That floor was pretty slippery. Maxine grabbed them by the shirts and lifted them a good ways off the floor. She turned and tossed them out of the kitchen. She grabbed the discarded broom and Lemon Pledge and roughly threw them at the heap that was currently Max and Logan.

"I thought you two were part of the Dirt Brigade." She said. "But you've proven to be dirty and... expendable."

"No! We're not expendable!" Max cried.

"We'll clean! We'll clean!" Logan exclaimed. "Just give us another chance."

Maxine's lips curled into a smile. "Well, that's good to hear. Initiative. You two take care of the living room and I'll give the bedroom another once over."

They nodded and she disappeared. When she had gone, they turned to each other and knew what they had to do. Neither had to say one word, they both just knew. It was going to be tough and one of them might get hurt in the process, but they had to take the risk.

And so...

"I'll start with the windows and you can dust the paintings."

"Okay."

* * time lapse... * *

Max and Logan dropped to the floor, exhausted. They cleaned the living room so well that it actually shined. Actually shined. Like in cartoons... but REAL. They weakly high-fived and began catching their breath.

Maxine bounded into the room, looking completely refreshed. "Oh my, you've done such a wonderful job."

"Vive la clean." Logan muttered halfheartedly.

"You know, all this cleaning that we've done today gave me a fabulous idea." Maxine bubbled.

Max and Logan looked at each other, both knowing that only horrible things could be to come. Then Maxine pulled out a pie chart. Now they knew for sure. Only plans of horrible complicatedness and destruction started with a pie chart.

"This is how dirty Seattle is now." Maxine said and pointed at a red pie. "And this is how CLEAN it would be once we were done."

She moved the first chart and now there was only a blue pie chart. Her plan was obviously to clean all of Seattle one hundred percent. Neither Max nor Logan had the heart - or stupidity - to tell her that her insane plan would never work.

"We'll need more people..."

"No." Maxine said flatly. "We won't need *more* people. We need LESS people."

Max and Logan looked at each other again, as they have been doing that a lot lately, why not have them do it again, right? They both knew what crazy Maxine was suggesting...

Genocide.

"We can use cookies."

Okay...

Genocide via baked goods. EEP!