Max looked round the corner and made sure that Maxine was fully engrossed in teaching Logan the art of needle point before she crawled across the still dangerously slippery kitchen floor and grabbed the phone.

She dialed Lydecker's number - which she got from the phone book. Man he really let himself slip, eh? And when he answered, she put on a big and deep voice to disguise her identity.

"Hello? Mr. Donald?"

...

"Max?"

"Uh! No! This is a mysterious man who is calling to inform you -"

"And you're calling from Cale's penthouse. I've got Caller ID."

"No! I've broken into Logan's apartment. He's out on the town with that sexy little minx with a witty personality, Max. I'm an anonymous caller."

"Okay. I suppose I can believe that. But why have you called? And why now? I'm missing Murder She Wro - I mean, I'm missing being an evil genius villain mastermind! ...Mwhahaha."

"Just shut up and listen. The domestics were released in the destruction of Manticore and one of them is in Seattle."

"The... domestics? Oh my God. The world is doomed."

"They can't be all that bad... can they? I mean, they just like to clean and... bake."

"They're horrible monsters!" He squeaked on the line. "They start off cleaning and baking, then the connections in their brains come... unconnected and they kill anything in their path. Only Manticore had the kitchen facilities to keep them in check. The world is doomed."

"How do you stop them?"

"There's only one way..."

Max leaned in closer to the phone to get a better listen. From Lydecker's end of the phone all we hear is "Sfff sfff sffff and then sffff sffffff sfff then sfff sffff sssffff."

...

"I didn't catch any of that. Just a then or two."

"Oh." Lydecker replied. "Just become more clean than her and she'll flip the hell out. It's the only way to neutralize them."

"Thank you. Oh, I better go. I think Logan and his sexy, sexy girl are coming back. I'll be in touch."

Lydecker's end went dead and Max quietly hung up the phone. She wiped her forehead and said "Phew" like you do in those situations when you haven't been caught, then she crawled across the floor again and sidled into the living room. She shrieked when she saw Logan.

He was encased in knitting! She ran over to him and ripped the knitting off of him. She slapped his face a few times to wake him up.

Slapslapslap.

Groan.

Slapslapslap.

Groangroan.

Slapslapslapslapslap.

"Oh, thank God, Max. I'm awake."

Slap.

"Max, I'm awake. I'm really okay."

Slap.

"Max!"

Slapslap.

He pushed her away and had to dodge another slap. Sensing that he had to slap - I mean, snap her out of it, he slapped her back. They both stared at each other for a moment then Max decided to let Logan in on what Lydecker had told her.

"And how do we do that?"

Max pulled some Lemon Pledge from... her back pocket and arched an eyebrow. It was obvious that Logan was supposed to get the drift there. And he did. Sweet.

* * time lapse... * *

Maxine rounded the corner and walked into the living room, her dirt sensors wildly... sensing. She looked all around the room, but could find no sign of dirt. Or Logan. Or Max. She felt this was extremely curious, so she went into the bedroom. No dirt. No Max. No Logan. The bathroom was the same. Which left only one logical location the kit - computer room.

She smirked, knowing that she would find dirt and would finally have an excuse to do away with her closest dirt-doers. Keyboards are filled with crumbs, aren't they? She threw open the door to the computer room and gave a hearty laugh, but... no dirt. There was however Max and Logan.

The pair was scrubbing and polishing furiously. This duo of dirt fighting wouldn't let anything past them. Oh no. Sensing she might be foiled, Maxine crossed her arms. "Missed a spot."

Max shot up in typical Maxine style. "WHERE?"

Maxine opened her mouth to answer, but Logan pointed and yelled, "THERE!" Then he dove over his desk and slammed onto the floor, then quickly got scrubbing the spot. He came up a minute or so later with a victorious smile. "Got it!"

"Right on Cleaning Unit #2!" Max exclaimed and gave him a high-five.

"Cleaning Unit... wha?" Maxine questioned.

"We've decided to become more efficient." Logan explained. "We've done away with our names and can now function properly and eliminate dirt the way it was meant to be eliminated, right Cleaning Unit #1?"

"You are correct, sir!" Max answered and polished the S key on the keyboard one more time.

'Is it possible I have met my match?' Maxine wondered. She decided that she better not have. Cause then she'd have to go crazy! Soo, she decided to do the only reasonable thing...

"I challenge you to a dirt eliminating battle!"