Judas Grey sat in his dark apartment room at a table in the corner with a single light lit above. On the desk sat many metal pieces and parts, which Judas scrutinized very carefully, taking one piece from a pile he’d set on one side of the desk to some device he was making on the other side.
Judas had always loved Steampunk, machinery that was years ahead of its time, but had an old-fashioned look to it. He figured making some of his own Steampunk machinery would be a good cure for the itch. After a few more minutes, Judas stopped welding and piecing metal to his device and slid his hand into what he had made. Once it had reached past his forearm, Judas lifted the metal object. It appeared to be a metallic hand/arm, which Judas was now beginning to test. Opening his fingers, rounded metallic parts that appeared to be fingers followed suit, drumming slowly in the air, balling into a fist, and appearing one after another in a counting fashion.
Satisfied, Judas smirked and set the arm down, looking it over. There was a knock at the door and Judas, after cocking his head questioningly to the side, walked over to the door and opened it. No one. Judas looked from one side to the other. Still no one. The door was one of two Judas had in his one room apartment, this one being the door to the fire escape. Judas looked up, noting no one was on the fire escape. Maybe he’d just heard something he only equated to a knock.
He was about to walk back inside when he heard a stifled laugh, the unseen owner almost choking, it sounded. Judas recognized the owner. With a sigh Judas said “Jeeze Luke, just come on out man, would yuh?”
The laugh continued, and Judas’ hair stood on end on his neck. It sounded like Luke was right in front of him. “Luke? Luke, what is…” He couldn’t think of what to ask. Just seemed quite odd his best friend would be invisible. How laughable was that…
Suddenly, a white tiger appeared right in front of him. “Surprise!” the tiger said, scaring Judas back into his room, stumbling over the threshold. The tiger laughed, unhindered this time, and Judas looked more confused than angry.
“Luke, what the heck was that?!”
Luke, a strong tiger who worked on the weight team at the college (Judas swam for the swim team), shrugged. “I don’t know bro! But it’s fun!”
Judas sighed. All muscle, accept for what was between his ears.
Before Judas could inquire again, Judas said, “I’ll do it again! Look!” Like he was drawing a zipper from his head to his toes, he vanished. “ZZZZIIIPP!!! Ha-ha-ha!”
Judas was about to speak, but heard Luke yell as his voice faded to the outside. It sounded like Judas just leapt off the fire escape onto the ground below.
“Hey Luke,” Judas said, walking out, “just don’t hurt yourself, however your doing that.”
“I’m not!” Came the reply. “I can fly too!”
Next thing Judas knew, Luke was standing in front of him again, then slowly fell through the grated floor below him. “I’m MELTING!!” Luke said in fake horror as he passed through the fire escape to the ground below.
Judas wasn’t sure what to make of it as Luke ran around, disappearing, reappearing, flying up to adjacent building tops, inside cars, even conking his head on a man-hole cover in an attempt to materialize through it (with an audible “OW!”).
“Dude-” Judas said, and Luke was there in an instant, “-s-s, stop doing that! Just, come inside, let’s get something to eat.”

To be continued...