A New Purr-spective (Mario Bros AU)

A Paw-plexing Situation

"...et up.... Green.... ake.... Damn it, Green, GET UP!"

His eyes fluttered open, wincing at the light as a harsh voice hit his ears, laced with poorly hidden concern.
"...mmmr...." he groaned as he weakly lifted his head and tried to force himself up, only to feel his legs buckle under him as he hissed in pain and fell back to the ground.
"Oi, be careful, ya idiot." The voice chastised as he felt a pressure by his side, keeping him from collapsing completely. He blinked as he slowly looked up at who was speaking, despite recognised the voice, his head was having trouble catching up, but upon seeing them, his eyes widened, and he tensed up.

Luigi winced in pain as he jumped up and a little away from the other, both startled and scared. "Woah! Green take it easy, we took a nasty hit there." The other warned, moving to take a step closer, but pausing when he saw the fear flicker in Luigi's gaze. He glanced down at his.... paws? And sighed, sitting down where he was to try and calm Luigi a little. "Don't gotta panic, it's just me.... seems like you got us in an... interesting situation to say the least.... I'd take a look at yourself before ya say anything." He told the other, his white-tipped tail twitching uncomfortably.

Luigi hesitated, his mind still trying to process what was happening, but he did look down, his confusion growing as he saw paws where his hands should have been. He quickly spun to look at the rest of himself, staring in confusion at his tan-speckled fur, his paws a dark brown and his tail tipped black. He then looked back to the other, taking in his appearance properly. They had black fur with a few grey speckles over his coat, his paws and tail tip white, and a lightning bolt mark over his left eye, his eyes being a dark green (and the mark over his eye, while white, had a tint of green to it, which matched the mark Luigi had on the opposite side of his face) it took Luigi a minute to find his words as he registered that they were both.... cats....

"L...?" He asked the other carefully, to which the black cat rolled his eyes. "Who else, dumbass?" L commented, though his voice still held a twinge of concern in it. Luigi glanced around the space for a moment, recalling what had happened earlier, when he'd jumped in to rescue Mario and gotten hit by Bowser's attack. "Um... d-did Bowser.... turn us into cats..?" He asked carefully, not exactly a fan of this new form. He had a pretty big fear of cats, especially after that haunted hotel incident. L wasn't exactly a fan of them either after that.
"Yep. Probably some side effects of whatever spell you pushed Red outta the way of." L sighed, shaking his head a little. "Speaking of Red, he weren't here when I  up, no one was. Guessing him and the Princess got away and that koopa guy left." The black cat explained with a shrug. Luigi was a little unnerved by the fact they were alone, but he tried not to let it show, taking a breath to calm his nerves a little, though it didn't do much.

"W-wait.... are... are y-you still... ghost-like...? O-or did this give you an a-actual physical form, L?" The tan furball suddenly asked, tilting his head slightly, before wincing at the pain in his body again. L just shrugged. "Ain't exactly had anyone to check here, Green. Won't know until we see if anyone else can see me or not, but we are still linked. I can just feel that." Luigi nodded, able to sense the link they had still as well, which was a slight comfort to him. Not being alone right now sure was a bonus.

L stood again, wincing as he stretched a little, feeling the same pain Luigi did. Luigi stood as well, lifting one of his paws off the ground as he felt pain shoot through that leg from putting weight on it, hissing a little as he looked down at it and tried to look over his shoulder. L glanced at where the other was trying to look, only to frown in concern as he saw red soaked into the tan fur on his shoulder and down his leg.
"Ah. That's probably why we hurt so much. You're bleeding, Green. Probably in spots other than that one too, if I had to guess." L meowed, stepping closer to look at the injury better. Luigi kept checking his pelt for other patches of blood, spotting a few on his sides and by the base of his tail.
"C'mon, we should get outta here before that koopa oaf comes back. We can assess injuries after we're back in town and safer." The black tom added, staying close to Luigi's side as he tried to figure out how they could leave, ready to support the other if necessary (though he felt the pain just as bad, so who knows how much support he'd be able to provide). It took the duo a while to find any path out that they could access, but eventually they did. L took the lead to make sure they didn't run into trouble, with Luigi following nervously, one step behind him the whole time as tgey slowly made their way out of the rubble and away from Bowser's domain.