It was possibly the tallest building ever built, but in the world of those who dreamed, who built it and why was not important. As storm clouds and lightning cracked around it, the interior was the site of a major fight. The sound of cats screaming and punches of thunder filled its dark halls. A lone figure ran in stark terror up the several flights of stairs. Her long blonde hair was dirty and tangled and her leather cat costume was ripped and falling apart at the seams. Her chest was almost exposed and three of her ten steel claws ripped out from her fingers. She was probably not going to kick another lady lawyer off any ledge.

"She's going to kill me, she's going to kill me, she's going to kill me," Georgia Thomas kept screaming out loud as she raced up the stairs. Bouncing off walls and tripping clumsily on steps, she reached another landing and looked down the several flights.

Completely unharmed and in one piece, Ally McBeal stood in her cute little cheerleader like superhero costume and reveled her the joy that in this dream she could beat Georgia up like a stuffed toy and lose herself of all her hostilities. A lightning flash down her chest, she looked up and flew up the center of the stairwell. On the top floor, she looked around with a mischievous child-like grin on her face.

"Georgia?" She was having way too much fun. "Here kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty…" She slowly glided across the dark floor. Looking in doors along the way, she reached the last one as a loud ringing suddenly filled her ears. She had been beamed with an iron pipe, but it had bent to the shape of her impervious head!

"Did you think that was going to help?" Ally asked.

"No," Georgia grinned harmlessly. "But it was worth a shot!" They both shared some friendly laughs. The next foot kick from the miniature powerhouse sent the lovely blonde out the window. Glass flew everywhere as Georgia fell several feet and slid down an arched roof. Furiously scratching with her few claws to save herself, her last claw finally caught the gutter as she hung suspended over infinite space.

"Ally," Georgia noticed two red boots land above her. "I thought we were friends!"

"Friends don't kick friends off buildings." Ally blew her a kiss. The sheer breeze knocked Georgia off as she fell screaming through space. Georgia Thomas woke with a start. She couldn't catch her breath as she sat in bed a minute. The sensation of the tattered costume and gutter between her fingers hadn't left her. The mattress creaked as she slid off the bed.

"Georgia?" Billy was barely awake as her absence roused his attention. The glowing green letters on the clock read 2:17 AM as he too rose and followed his lovely wife from the confines of the dark bedroom to the well-lit bathroom.

"Are you okay?" He asked kissing her neck.

"Sure." She pulled her long perfect hair aside one shoulder as she splashed water into her face. "Just a dream."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." She forced a small grin and kissed him. As he returned to their marital bed, she took the cup and poured herself some water to drink. The cold water made her feel better as she exhaled.

"Oh, no." she murmured to herself as she cringed inside. "Now I'm having her dreams!"

PART 2

Billy and John were discussing the case about the Winslow High School cheerleader as they noticed Ally step off the elevator. She was not her usual preoccupied self this morning. She was smiling and happy and swinging her briefcase as she entered.

"Well, hello!" She mentioned to them. "Isn't it a beautiful day!"

"Well, you're...peppy." John noticed.

"Why shouldn't I be?" Ally couldn't stop smiling. She was like a really big kid today. "I think I had the best night's sleep last night I've had in a long time. I've never felt so refreshed!"

"I wish you'd tell Georgia your secret." Billy dropped a file on the desk. "She was tossing and turning last night."

"Was she?" Ally sounded concerned, but she couldn't conceal her little smirk of ecstatic glee.

"Ally?" John looked up. "Your ten o'clock is here if you can come out of Mister Roger's Neighborhood."

"Oh yeah," She returned to reality. Her defendant was being sued by the muggers he had beat into submission. She was hoping the case could be thrown out of court, but Judge Walsh was allowing it. Opinions aside, assault was still a legal matter. John led her to the conference room where her client was waiting for her - all seven feet of him.

"Hello." He was built like a brickyard. His wavy chestnut brown hair and short beard made him look like a lumberjack. Ally and John felt like a set of pygmies in his presence. The top of her head came to the pit of his barrel chest as those steely blue-green eyes looked down on her. He was a god!

"Hello." She mustered and turned to whisper to John. "Keep Elaine busy." It was too late. A slight breeze and the wild one flew into the room on the wings of her feet. A wide smile possessed her face as she looked up and up.

"Well, hello!" She arched her back until her breasts jutted up from her chest.

"Elaine, Harry Cleese." Ally rolled her eyes. "Mr. Cleese, Elaine Vassal."

"John, how did you slip this one by me!" Elaine stood up to the huge muscle-bound figure in the plaid shirt, jeans and boots.

"I hauled him in through the window." John took her arm and embarrassingly pulled her out by the arm. Closing the door behind them, they left Ally to work.

"Sorry," she excused the office .

"Not the first time," Cleese pulled out a chair and sat down. "To tell the truth, I don't understand why I'm being punished for saving that young damsel's life. Those miscreants who tried to purloin her purse is the greater villain."

"Damsel?" Ally wondered who talked like this then quickly forgot it.

"Uh, well, you're right, but unfortunately the law protects criminals from being harassed. No matter how much they deserve it."

In the outer office, Georgia headed straight for the office coffee pot and poured herself a cup. Yawning as she added sugar to her cup, she felt Billy come up and kiss her cheek. She merely nodded and yawned again.

"Did you get any sleep?" he asked.

"Two, maybe three hours." She answered blinking her eyes several times. "Uhhhhhh, I can't go into court like this. I'd blow Richard off, but I really promised him in this liability case."

"I think Ally has some caffeine pills in her desk." Billy mentioned.

"Why don't you borrow some from her?"

"I'll have to." Georgia kissed her husband a moment and strided over to Ally's office. Knocking on the door a minute, she noticed the little spitfire was out and headed to the desk. Sitting down, she looked into the top drawer and continued down. In the bottom, Wonder Woman looked up at her.

There was a stack of comics in her drawer! Avengers, X-Men, Superman, more X-Men, another Wonder Woman, Rogue, Femme Force, more Wonder Woman. The one that really caught her eye was Captain Marvel. With a secret word, Billy and Mary Batson became Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel. Ally was wearing Mary's costume in that dream last night!

"That witch put a curse on me last night!" She didn't need the pills now!

PART 3

Harrison Cleese fit into the witness stand like a baseball in an egg carton. Ally glanced briefly to the taciturn face of Judge Walsh as she crossed in front of him.

"Mr. Cleese," she started. "Can you tell me about the incident in question?"

"I was out for my fitness regimen through the park..." Cleese continued. "... And as I rounded the fountain I heard screams and saw the young maiden being accosted by the three pieces of vermin..."

"Objection to vermin, your honor." Vincent Dinapolis represented the plaintiff.

"Sustained." Walsh sat back. "Mr. Cleese, refrain from the comments."

"Well," Cleese glared back at him. "Realizing what was occurring, I barreled through the brush, overtook the three..." He looked at the judge. "...And re-obtained the young woman's purse."

"You weren't scared?" Ally asked.

"I believe it is the duty of all to come to the help of others." Cleese remarked. "I do it all the time."

"And just what did you do when you caught them?"

"I stopped two of them and threw the heathen..."

"Objection." Dinapolis split proverbial hairs over the leading references.

"Sustained." Walsh looked down. "Mr. Cleese, the names."

"…Out of the way." Ally's client continued unabated.

"Thank you." Ally smiled unassumingly. "Your witness."

Dinapolis grinned toward Baron Sadler, the young man by him wearing the neck brace and nursing a broken arm. The young creep with his evil grin and irreverent attitude really was an obnoxious jerk, but he was his sister's boy and he wasn't going to pay for the future felon's medical bills.

"Well," he started. "That was short and sweet. Why don't you tell the court the full details of your attack?" Cleese just sat back in a totally unresponsive state. "You slammed Brad Champion and Bobby Williamson together like they were rag dolls and then you threw Sadler fifty yards as if he was a football!"

"If you're gonna do the crime..."

"You're built like a truck." Dinapolis continued. "These three boys together don't weigh nearly as much as you do. How often do you barrel into these attacks like some sort of costumed superhero?"

Ally looked up. An illusion of Billy was floating outside the window in his blue tights and red cape just as her old dreams. He waved hello to her and flew off.

"Objection! " She snapped to reality. "He's harassing my client."

"Overruled."

"Mr. Cleese," Dinapolis continued. "I even went through the process of running a check on you for other similar warrants. I found nothing. As far as the county records show, you do not exist. There has been no record of a Harrison Cleese ever existing, that is if that is your real name."

"Objection." Ally popped up. "This is not about the privacy of my client."

"Overruled." Walsh looked down. "I'm going to allow it. Mr. Cleese, do you have another name?"

"Yes, your honor," Ally's client looked across to her. He shifted in the seat a minute. "It's...Heracles. Heracles Reason."

"Your real name is Hercules?" Ally asked as a few chuckles occurred behind her.

"No," Her client admitted. "That's the modern pronunciation. The correct form is Heracles."

"Your honor," Dinapolis smiled stifling a laugh. "I think it is only proper at this time that we check these claims as to my client's identity and past records."

"I agree." Walsh was one of the few not amused. "We will reassume court Monday at two. Court is adjourned till then." he pounded his gavel. Ally stood at her chair with her mouth hanging open. She was looking at her client completely embarrassed. He stared back to her.

"Sorry." He replied.

PART 4

John and Richard had heard the news of the turnover in court. Rumor had it that Ally passed out when Cleese revealed his real name. Elaine had heard she had to be resuscitated by paramedics and carried to the hospital. When the diminutive lady lawyer entered the office from the elevator and marched to the conference room with Cleese a few steps behind, everyone looked up and followed as she clutched her briefcase to her chest. Her chin rode the top of it as they vanished into the room. A second later the briefcase was heard slamming down on the table.

"I have never been so embarrassed in court!" She bellowed out loud; her little eyes on fire.

"And I am not accustomed to be pushed around by someone small enough to sprout wings and sprinkle faerie dust!" Cleese's voice roared back. Outside the office, Elaine cracked up laughing over that response just from picturing Ally as the tooth fairy. Georgia and Richard shared smirks as Billy and John listened in utter disbelief.

"Are there any other secrets you are keeping from me that I need to know, Mr. Reason! If that is your real name?" Ally just barely lowered her voice.

"I can't tell you." He turned to the window.

"If you have any sort of record, I need to know so that I can be prepared to...eep!" She had caught a glance of someone who had appeared standing in the room behind her beyond her knowledge. She was extra-ordinarily attractive with a white jacket and skirt and violet blouse. Her curly short black hair accentuated her blue-grey eyes. Endowed with a regal poise and aristocratic air, she sort of resembled actress Isabella Rosselini.

"Mrs. McBeal, my sister." Cleese responded as he slowly revealed her name. "Minerva Reason. She's a bit of a lawyer herself."

"What?" Ally hadn't heard the door. "Um, uh, oh… I mean, it is good to...where did you come from?"

"Hercules." Reason barely acknowledged Ally's presence as she spoke with a unique accent dancing through her words. "I came straight from Nashville to help you. What sort of trouble are you in this time."

"Something I don't understand." Cleese looked to Ally. "Could we be alone?"

"Oh, um, sure." Ally's embarrassment turned to confusion. She beamed a quick harmless smile and turned out the door of her office. She headed out of the room and stopped by the coffee pot and took a cup to fill with coffee. Georgia was trying to keep a straight face as she came up to her.

"Hard time in court?" She bit her lip as she still pictured Ally as Tinkerbell.

"Huh," Ally didn't understand the smirk. "Yeah, but hopefully it will all get resolved."

"Oh," The blonde lawyer looked away to hide her big grin. Elaine was hiding the same grimace as Georgia tried to change the subject. "By the way, what's with the comics in your desk?"

"What?" Ally had forgot they were there. "Oh… uh, remember that dream I had with you kicking me off the ledge of the building? Tracy thought that if I had a role in the dream, I could change it."

"Oh," Georgia turned away. "So that's how it works."

"Ally," Elaine seemingly had lost her smirk. "So, what are you doing next?"

"I guess he and his sister are planning something." Ally sipped her coffee.

"You should know. You sneaked her in there."

"I didn't sneak anyone in." Elaine furrowed her brow with confusion. "No one has been near the door."

"Except maybe a fairy or two." Richard mumbled with a case file against his lips. Ally shot him a look as she did a double take. Wondering if the whole thing was one of her hallucinations, she strided back up to the door of her office. Knocking on it a second to respect the privacy of brother and sister, she opened it up. The room was empty.

"Where'd he go?" Elaine asked. "Ally, you and Harry are the only ones who went in here."

"Was I?" Ally started to feel very far away.

PART 5

Billy yawned as he entered his apartment. Dropping his briefcase on the sofa of the darkened living room, he noticed the bedroom light still on as he pulled at his collar and removed his tie. Georgia was reading in bed by the light as he sauntered around the bed.

"Sorry I'm so late," he began. "But Principal Harper and Assistant Principal Guber took me back to Winslow to discuss things with Mrs. Haltom."

"Is your client going to be a cheerleader or not?" Georgia asked.

"I close tomorrow and then the jury rules." Billy took off his shirt and pants. Once in his briefs and t-shirt, he flipped back the comforter and slid in next to his wife. He heard paper crinkling on his way. "What's with the comic books?" There had to be ten of them next to Georgia.

"Oh, you mean these?" Georgia grinned like a little girl. She even blushed a bit. "I guess you could say Ally got me hooked."

"Oh..." He gazed intently at his wife. With her long blonde locks and flawless features, she was turning into a little girl before him. "To tell the truth. I've loved them since I was a kid. I'm just trying to catch up on some old stories."

"Did you have a favorite?" Billy hovered over her.

"Supergirl." Georgia admitted. "I wanted to be her. I wanted to be able to fly and save people. I guess she lead me to be a lawyer. The weird thing is, she's not Superman's cousin anymore."

"That's right." Billy nibbled at her neck. "They killed her off a long time ago. When they brought her back, she was changed to a whole new character."

"And how did you know that!" She felt his breath on the back of her neck. He stopped nuzzling her and looked into her eyes.

"Guilty." He confessed. "I read them while I was in college." He flashed an innocent smile.

"Really." Georgia tossed the Justice League to the floor. "Prepare to feel the wrath of my golden lasso..." She pushed him over and giggled as she attacked him with kisses down his chest.

PART 6

Ally had not seen Cleese since the vanishing trick, but he was there in front of the courtroom as she arrived. His sister, Minerva Reason, was there too along with another gentleman: a tall strapping figure that looked like him as an older figure. Bearded with a thick mane of reddish blonde hair, he wore a dark blue suit and black tie. He had to be in his forties, but he had the powerful frame and stamina of a much younger man with the outer auspices of an older family patriarch.

"Ally," Cleese started. "My father, J. Peter Reason…"

"My dear lady..." Reason took her hand. "What a fine beauty." He kissed
it.

"Your son said you were quite a charmer." Ally grinned.

"Womanizer is more like it." Minerva mumbled as her father shot her a look.

"How did you leave the conference room?" Ally turned to Harry.

"We walked right past you." Minerva answered. "Didn't you see us?" She grinned enigmatically. Ally squinted as she tried to figure her out.

"I pulled some mortal strings." Reason continued as he led down a hall. "Judge Walsh will be hearing your closing comments in private chambers. I want this case gone now."

"Are you leaving, father?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Alfadur Odinson and I are meeting Ammun Ra in Cairo to discuss our mergers." Reason turned to Ally. "Be good to my boy, you Celtic minx." He flirted with her. Ally just mustered a little smile as she lightly giggled. Celtic? He must have been responding to her Scottish surname.

"Just let me lead." Minerva broke the mood. "I've done this before." Her regal poise was almost arrogant, but in the judge's quarter she was obviously in her element as if she had been practicing law for thousands of years. Before a stenographer, the sister of Harry Cleese controlled the room as if she had an intimate knowledge of law and human behavior.

"Mr. Dinapolis." Minerva took the floor. "I call to you the precedent set on October 18, 1893, Rice, Babcock and Evans vs. McCauley. You cannot plead a case without all your clients in agreement. Where are Sadler's compatriots from the court-attack?"

"Your honor!" Dinapolis rebuked.

"Doesn't he remind you of Loki?" Cleese whispered to his sister. Ally didn't get the reference.

"Mrs. Reason," Walsh began. "That's a very old..."

"It was still being used on March 18, 1943." Reason smiled. "The file is under your left elbow."

No one had noticed the file until she had pointed it out. For Ally, it seemed to have come out of nowhere. Her eyes rounded as she looked into Minerva's beaming face. Her blue-gray eyes were aglow.

"Well," Walsh picked it up and perused the file. "How about it Mr. Dinapolis? Where are Champion and Williamson?"

"Uh, heh, it's like this..." Dinapolis continued. "One has been disowned by his parents and sent to military school and the other fled to California."

"Without their testimonies, you have no case."

"Uncle Tony," Sadler replied. "I need more morphine for my friends, I mean, for the pain."

"Listen up you little heathen." Dinapolis turned on his nephew. "You tell your mother this is the last time she puts the screws on me!"

"And Mr. Cleese." The judge turned to Harry. "You are free to go, but I do recommend your taper your temper and attitude against felons. Off the record, I wish more cared to get involved as you do. Case dismissed." He pounded his gavel.

"Is that it?" Ally asked as Dinapolis reamed his nephew over the coals.

"What did you expect?" Minerva Reason stood. "A crack of thunder?" A crack of thunder struck outside as Ally stood by the children of J. P. Reason. Her eyes rounded at the sound before she forced a little giggle.

"And thank you from myself." Cleese took her tiny hand. "Do you like Greek cuisine?"

"I'll try anything." She forced a smile of courtesy.

PART 7

After lunch, Ally headed back to the office. Her thoughts were dreamily on Cleese or whatever his name was as her eyes fell on the small bag on her desk. It was only small enough a handful of coins, but it was full of sand. A small card dangled from its drawstring.

"Sprinkle some faerie dust and think of a happy thought; maybe you can fly!" She read it. "Oh, please, get a life!" She tossed it into the trash. Dropping to her desk, she heard rapping at the door as Elaine hovered at it.

"Ally? There's a Vincent Dinapolis here to see you."

"Oh, god, what does he want?"

"Harry Cleese." The prosecuting attorney returned like a headache. "Where is he?"

"I don't know."

"Look at this." Dinapolis dropped a thick file. "This is New York's file on Hercules Reason - all the way back to 1873!"

"Well, what's the big...did you say 1873?"

"The guy's over a hundred years old." Dinapolis continued. "Bar fights, misdemeanors, physical assaults... I called NYC Records and double-checked. Five times!"

"But that's impossible."

"I checked his sister's records." Dinapolis continued. "The only Minerva Reason with a record to practice law vanished in 1831."

"But it's got to be a error."

"Over two hundred years?" Dinapolis leaned over her desk. "What if, and I know this sounds crazy, but hear me out, they really are who they are? The mythological Hercules and Minerva, still alive over two THOUSAND years!"

"But, but, but..." Ally accidentally did her John Cage impression. "She's from Nashville. Why would a goddess live there? The country music?"

"Nashville has a replica of the Parthenon." Dinapolis revealed. "It was her temple."

"Oh..." Ally's eyes got very big as she put her hands together in prayer against her mouth. She then started pushing the file back together. "Well, what if we pretend we never saw this?"

"Deal." Dinapolis made a face like Q of Star Trek.

"Um…" Ally paused. "Who's Loki?"

"Trickster of Norse myth, why?"

"Forget it." Her eyes widened again as she fell into her seat. I mean, if Hercules and Minerva and their father were still alive after all these years, what about a certain Norse trickster or his half-brother the thunder-god? What about the figures considered gods by the Egyptians, Mesopotamians or the Chinese? How far would the possibility go? She wanted to scream just thinking about it.

PART 8

Georgia tossed and turned in her sleep as she tried to avoid the dreams and images going through her head. Billy noticed the REM action of her eyes moving back and forth as she found herself in the same building, in the same torn Catwoman costume and running from the same unstoppable foe.

"She's going to kill me, she's going to kill me, she's going to kill me, she's going to kill me…" She tripped and stumbled as she fled up the same stairway as before. Hurriedly reaching the top, she looked down to the bottom.

Ally stood at the bottom in her red and yellow costume with white cape. She looked straight up and saw Georgia's head bounce out of view several floors above her. A short flight up through the center of the flights of stairs, she put her feet down on the top-landing ready to tussle once more. At the end of the hall, Georgia waited for her.

"No lead pipe this time?" she asked.

"Something better..." Georgia whipped out a green rock that glowed in the dark. "Kryptonite!"

"I think..." Ally barely flinched. "You have me confused with Elaine." She grinned ecstatically as this dream world gave her the opportunity to take out her hostilities on the woman who took Billy from her.

"Crud!" Georgia braced as she realized the kick to the abdomen was next. Knocked off her feet, she sailed backward through the window and dropped down several stories on the exterior of the building. The sound of the window glass shattering was heard everywhere as Billy looked up from his office at Cage and Fish. His Kryptonian sense spanned several blocks and noticed his old girlfriend beating up his wife in the dream world conjured between the two of them

"Oh, man, they're fighting again…" He mumbled as he opened the window and dropped out of it for the ground. Falling a few feet, he turned into his alter ego of the man of steel in this dream-verse and was flying to the rescue instead of hitting the street below. The vast building where Ally and Georgia were was just a short distance away away, but he already saw the dark shape falling to earth. It increased in perspective to the size and appearance of his wife as he caught her.

"Billy!" she smiled and passed out. Continuing his trajectory, he lovingly held on to her and continued flying up until he hovered a foot off the ledge where Ally was. She looked back to him like a mischievous little girl embarrassed to be caught in an act of mischief. She made an innocent little smile.

"How many times are you going to kick her out that window!" Billy asked her.

"Um..." Ally looked for an answer. "How about once for every time she kicked me off the ledge?"

END