Hello again! It's been far too long!
For those who don't know, I've had to make some big decisions recently. I'm going to be trying once again to get a patron thing up and running, as I have run completely out of funds. To raise interest, I will be posting a few chapters for 2 random stories I've had sitting around. I also have a poll on my profile page where you can vote on my new story ideas that interest you, and I will write the first chapter of whichever stories are most popular. If I can get enough patrons, I will be writing ALL the new stories AND I will FINALLY be finishing Out of Place! But only if I can get this to work out!
More info is on the tumblr. The name is CoffeeFueledAuthor. Thats my pat re o n name too!
Be sure to vote!

Chapter 1

The front door flew open in an instant, having been hit so hard that it impacted the inner wall of the modest house. Luigi jumped half a foot in the air at the thunderous noise, almost spilling his mug of still steaming tea over himself and the armchair beneath him. Though thoroughly startled and terrified of what was to follow, the younger man forced himself not to turn around, knowing that even a quick glance could set off a rage induced fury. Besides, he didn't have to look to know who it was that entered with a bang. Mario's fits of anger only seemed to get worse with time.

The elder sibling stormed into the house, turning on his heels and throwing the door closed with all his strength. Luigi could hear the sickening snap of the finished wood splitting upon impact, leaving a deep crack like a fault line down the doors front. Unmoved, Mario stormed his way into kitchen, furiously growling along the way. He saw the teapot still on the stove top and habitually turned on the burner. Luigi sighed, hoping that perhaps the tea would calm his brothers high strung nerves.

Worrying that his silence may further fuel his anger, Luigi attempted to speak to the enraged man. "You got back early." He tried to keep his voice as neutral as possible. "I thought you were going to that important 'officials' meeting?"

"Yeah, I went there!" Mario nearly screamed his response, furiously taking the items required for his tea out of the cupboards and hurling them onto the counter top. "And all they did was whine about all of the kingdoms problems and expect ME to handle them! I'm tired of it! They all expect way too much outta me! I'll tell you what I told them; I'm done being the errand-boy for a whole country!"

"You… actually said that? With Peach there?" Luigi was floored. Mario was always on his best behavior at these sort of meetings. It was the Princess who had suggested Mario be added to the board of Kingdom Representatives in the first place. He did his best to make sure he proved she had made a wise choice. Making a scene with such an outburst; it was so unlike him. "Bro, you need to calm down…"

Mario pounded a fist onto the counter, rattling the small, mushroom shaped sugar bowl. "If you tell me to calm down one more time..!" He boomed.
Luigi, fearful of this new side of Mario, obediently fell silent.

After only a brief silence, Mario went back to what he had been doing. He flung open a cupboard door with a crack and went to retrieve his favorite red coffee mug. But his hands were once more refusing to cooperate. He couldn't seem to manipulate his own fingers to grab hold of the ceramic handle. Mario struggled and fought to take control of his movement, but it was no use. His hand jerked awkwardly to the side, sending the mug to the floor where it exploded into glazed crimson shards.
That was the final straw.

Mario threw his head back, flinging his signature cap across the room, and let loose a roar of pure unbound fury. Rage consumed his form, and he set out on a path of destruction. He overturned the dining table in a single motion, the vase that had been sitting atop it shattering in the fall. He ripped framed pictures from the wall, hurled lamps off of end tables; anything that entered his vision fell victim to his wrath.

Luigi leapt from the arm chair and ran to his brother, taking off perhaps a bit too quickly and stumbling along the way. Never had he seen his sibling act like this. He had been right when he had voiced concern several days earlier; something was definitely wrong, and he was determined to find out what. Mario needed him.
Mario, blinded by rage, was reaching for another object to destroy when Luigi appeared behind him, grabbing and pinning his arms to his sides.

"Mario!" Luigi shouted, tears threatening to form in his eyes as he held a tight grip on his brother. "What's wrong with you!? Get a hold of yourself!"

Easily overpowering his younger brother, Mario broke free of the arms that ensnared him. Before Luigi could react, Mario whipped around at light speed, his fist like an iron hammer striking his sibling square in the face.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Luigi collapsed to the hard wood floor.

As he weakly struggled to lift himself into a seated position, Luigi brought a hand to the side of his aching jaw. His mind, still reeling from the impact, was trying desperately to process what had just happened. Mario had been mad at him before, he had once even gone an entire week without speaking to him, but never in his life had Mario ever raised a hand against his little brother. A storm raged within the younger man; a chaotic twister of confusion, shock, and genuine emotional pain like a dagger through his heart. He managed to raise a quivering gaze to the man standing before him with an expression that pleaded for an explanation.

Mario stood his ground, breathing heavily, his fists still clenched in fury. But when those innocent shimmering eyes raised to meet his, Mario's glare immediately fell. All of the rage that had burned within him cooled in that instant, and his tense posture melted away.

Luigi briefly removed his hand from his face and inspected his glove. Fresh crimson from his split lip stained the once flawless white. He replaced the hand on his wound and looked to Mario again, his pleading expression intensifying by the second.

His pupils constricted to pinpoints when Mario noticed the blood oozing from his brothers mouth, and his eyebrows lifted in utter shock of what he had just done. He had done the unthinkable; he had attacked his younger sibling. The blood that now streamed from Luigi's lip, the very same blood that coursed through Mario's own veins, had been spilled with a strike from his hands. Guilt crashed over top him in a tidal wave. It was his fault. He and he alone had hurt the one he cared about most.

"I… I-I was… I d-didn't…" Mario stammered rapidly, his mind unable to piece together any form of coherent speech. His hands, now nervously interlocked, began to tremble. His eyes darted in all directions as he took a few unstable steps backwards. He just couldn't believe it. How..? How could he have let that happen? How could he have lost control?

He had become a monster.

Mario wordlessly whirled around and took off at an impossible speed, barely throwing the front door open in time to avoid crashing into it. Luigi only had time to utter a near silent 'wait' before his brothers figure flew through the exit and onto the clay path outside.

Still failing to fully comprehend the situation, Luigi scrambled to his feet. He didn't care about his own injuries. The only concern that plagued his mind was concern for Mario's condition. He was desperate to help, even if it meant risking being struck down once again.

"Wait!" Luigi shouted much louder this time, sprinting out of the open door. He could only barely make out Mario's silhouette in the fading evening light, the head start he had taken giving him a wide lead. But Luigi was determined. He kept up the blistering pace, pathetically attempting to close the gap between the two brothers as his mind continued to race with worry. His lungs began to burn with every exhausted inhale, his legs began to ache from the fatigue. Still he sprinted onward, refusing to slow even after Mario's figure escaped his vision.

He wasn't sure how long he was running before the silhouette before him finally reappeared. With his end goal in sight, Luigi picked up the pace with a rush of exhilarated energy. But to his surprise, Mario was no longer retreating. He had come to a dead stop, his body laying on the cool ground in a pained fetal position. When Luigi finally slowed to a stop mere feet away from his brother, he noticed the inhuman groaning rising from Mario's chest as he cried out in agony.

"Mario..!" Luigi gasped, thoroughly out of breath and with his strained lungs burning.

"Lu-Luigi…" The suffering was painfully obvious in Mario's weakened voice. "G-go… Get… get away from me..!"

His concern and determination only growing (despite being slightly disheartened that Mario's anger seemed to have returned), Luigi defiantly knelt beside his tormented sibling and reached out with a gentle hand. "Mario! What's wrong? Where are you hurt?"

Frustrated, Mario quickly batted Luigi's hand away. "I… I s-said… go..!" A tear escaped his tightly clenched eyelids as the pain tripled with every passing second. "Get out of… of here… Now..!"

Luigi hadn't even noticed the stream of tears steadily flowing down his sweat speckled face. He brought the hand that his brother had refused to his chest, closing a fist over top his heart. "I want to help you!" He begged.

Suddenly, Mario jerked into a more upright, seated position and screamed at a deafening volume. His piercing shriek was unlike any sound he had ever made before, laced with pain, suffering, and pure terror. As he cried out, his eyes snapped open, his once blue irises now almost glowing in a bright crimson. Startled, horrified, and at a total loss, Luigi flung himself backwards a few steps before stumbling and falling to the ground. As the fear began to petrify the muscles in his legs, he raised his hands to his head and pulled the sides of his cap as far down his face as he could, perhaps hoping that somehow the familiar cloth would protect him.

Mario only continued to produce a chorus of agonizing cries as his body began to tremble. He hunched forward as a series of bony spines not unlike a stegosaurus burst through his back with a sickening, bone grinding snap, tearing through his clothes as if they were tissue paper. He tried to rise to his feet but immediately lost his balance and fell to his hands as the bones in his legs began to change, and his entire form began to steadily grow in size. Luigi could only look on helplessly as Mario's humanity rapidly deteriorated and he assumed a new form before his very eyes, shrieking endlessly in response to the blinding pain. As his human shape was lost to this new bestial exterior, his cries deepened into bellowing roars that shook the ground and rattled his young brother's spine. When he had grown too large and misshapen to fit them any longer, his tattered clothes tore and fell away from him, exposing rusty scales that coated his being.

When the sound of snapping bones and morphing tissue finally subsided, Mario, or what was once him, stood tall on his four clawed feet, stretching to his full intimidating height. He opened his huge, gator-like mouth, exposing an impressive array of jagged fangs and howled a final roar. It was then that his cross shaped pupils within his furious red eyes focused on Luigi once more.

Snarling and lowering his head like a wolf stalking its prey, the beast slowly and somewhat awkwardly crept forward, his fangs glistening with saliva. Luigi, his thoughts now a chaotic blur, instinctively scrambled backwards but found himself still unable to stand. With his body still paralyzed in terror, he knew there was no way he could escape this monsters wrath. As the creature closed in, it's mouth began to open, emitting a sound similar to a growling hiss.

But before he fully made contact, the monster began to blink rapidly, it's snarling subsiding. It lifted it's horned head and stumbled back a few steps as though off balance. As it's eyes continued to open and shut, they suddenly returned to the same pure blue that Luigi recognized as his brother's. When all the red had dissipated, they refocused on Luigi's matching eyes and the beast seemed to make a horrified expression.

The monster stumbled a few more steps back before tripping and falling chest first to the ground. After struggling back to its feet, it gave one final gaze into Luigi's eyes before turning and bounding away with earth shaking stomps. In a matter of seconds, the beast had completely vanished into the growing darkness of night.

Luigi, his hands still tightly clenched in a vice grip on his hat, breathed in heavy gasps with his heart pounding in his chest. His mind had shattered into a vortex of racing thoughts, unable to even begin to understand what he had witnessed. It would take him time before he could fully regain awareness of the situation at hand.
There was one thing he knew for certain, though.

In that final moment when the monster looked him in the eyes, he saw the terrified expression of Mario looking back.

Monster or not, he was certain that creature was his brother. He was going to help him no matter the cost.