Queen Sunstar: Here is Chapter Two of Critical.

Twila: Queen Sunstar doesn't own anything regarding the Mario Bros. She owns the story, and some of the characters like Solarton, Sol, Bri, Maria, Dr. Toadala, and Solance.

Queen Sunstar: I am going to warn you all now. I may get very graphic with some parts, and this story shouldn't be read by little kids, as it will cause nightmares.

Twila: Queen Sunstar also owns Lady Luminosity, and Lunella.

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Chapter Two: Worsening Condition

Overlord Solarton stood before a video screen. He typed in a command.

"Transmitting now, Sir." the computers voice was female.

Minutes ticked by, before the overly cheerful voice of Lady Luminosity came out of the speakers.

"Irregular Galaxy, Luminosity speaking. How may I help you today?" Luminosity said.

"Something is attacking Suns, and I think you are next. Sol and Bri, two powerful Head Suns of the Shroob Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy are dead, and Brighton, Head Sun of the Milky-Way is fighting for his life on Earth, in Skyland, Inside Skyland Memorial Hospital, in the ICU. I want you to get out while you can. This is a direct order." Solarton explained.

"Each of those galaxies are over 12.5 trillion light-years apart from each other. Is this some sick joke?" Luminosity asked.

"Have I ever cracked a joke in my life?" Solarton asked, "This is serious!"

"You are serious. Do you want me to evacuate every person my galaxy?" Luminosity asked.

"No, you need to get out. Come to the Solar Hall." Solarton said.

"I'll get out, ASAP." Luminosity turned to her husband, a moon.

"Lumi, what is it?" Lunus asked.

"That was the Overlord. I must leave here for a while. I am putting you in charge, Lunus." Luminosity said.

"Meeting?" Lunus questioned.

"Yes, Overlord Solarton has called an emergency meeting of all head Suns. I will be home in a week." Luminosity said, hating to lie to the one she loved.

"I will be here, waiting, my love." Lunus said.

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Twila forced herself to swallow. She walked back into the room. Mario and Peach were there, and Mario was doing everything in his power to not look at the hanging bag of blood.

"Twila, Brighton will pull through. He will be fine. They are only keeping him in the coma so his damaged liver can heal." Peach said.

"I know, Peach, I know. It hurts, seeing him like this. The Brighton I knew was so full of life. Who would do something like this?" Twila asked.

"Skolar is trying to figure that one out." Mario said.

"I miss Brighton, you know? Yesterday morning feels like it happened years ago. I can still remember it so clearly." Twila closed her eyes, "I remember, Brighton yelping in pain as he managed to somehow overshoot the turn to the bathroom, the sound of the shower running, his cheerful good morning, as I roll over to bury my face in my pillow," Twila stopped, reliving the morning in her mind.

"Brighton was-I mean, is a morning person. He loved the early morning." Peach said.

A monitor started beeping rapidly. Dr. Toadala ran into the room, and shooed Mario, Twila, and Peach out into the waiting room.

"He's gone tachycardiac! He is not getting enough oxygen into his bloodstream! I need a ventilator in here!" Dr. Toadala screamed.

Meanwhile, in the waiting room, Peach and Twila choose to sit, while Mario paced.

"Mario, calm down." Peach said.

"Peach, I can't help but worry. Brighton is my father, and I don't want to lose him." Mario said.

"Mario, I understand. Here is the Doctor, now." Peach said.

Both Mario and Twila turned to the doctor.

"The situation is grave. Brightons liver is dieing, and there is a high number of toxins in his blood. He is too ill to undergo a transplant. He is not getting enough oxygen in his bloodstream. We put him on a ventilator. Twila, I am asking you, do we pull the plug, or wait?" Dr. Toadala asked.

"You don't know Brighton, doc. He will pull through this. I will not make this kind of decision. This is nothing compared to what he has survived before." Twila said.

"What if Brighton was able to undergo a transplant? I could donate a part of my liver. He is my father." Mario said.

"Here is my decision. We give Brighton a chance to fight." An old fire had returned to Twilas dark gray eyes.

"We will need to test you to see if you are a match first. Come." Dr. Toadala said.

Mario left, following the doctor, and Twila went back to the room.

"You are not going to die on me, you hear? We have been through so much together. I lost you once, and I will not lose you again. I love you, and I almost died without you in my life. You saved this world so many times. You have stared at the face of pure evil, and won the fight. You will win this fight." Twila turned to the window, "Am I being selfish by not letting them pull the plug on you? Are you suffering too much?" Twila turned back to Brighton. She saw the pain in his face.

"Twila." Peach came into the room followed by Greg.

"Yes?" Twila asked.

"Milady, do you want me to take you home?" Greg asked.

"No, Greg. I am fine." Twila said.

"Milady…" Greg tried.

"Greg, why don't you go back to the castle." Twila kept her voice firm.

"Yes, Milady. Call me if you want to go home." Greg turned and left.

Mario came back into the room.

"I am a match. They are going to do a transplant later in the morning." Mario said.

"Mario, you are too kind." Twila said.

"I am doing this because he is my father." Mario said.

"I understand, Mario." Twila said, "You are doing this to save Brighton."

Over the next few hours, a steady stream of doctors and nurses filed in and out of the room. At about seven in the morning, a toadette dressed in surgical garb came into the room.

"My name is Dr. Harmony, and I am the head surgeon here at this hospital. I will oversee the operation. Who is our lucky donor?" Dr. Harmony asked.

"I am." Mario said.

"A nurse will come by to take you to a room where you can change into the hospital garb." Harmony read Brightons chart, "Wonderful, we have a split liver situation. The surgery is scheduled to begin in one hour."

Right on cue, a male nurse came for Mario. Peach followed.

"We are going to move him into the OR now." Harmony said.

Twila went back into the waiting room. Peach and Mario had stayed all night with Twila, while the others opted to go across the street to the hotel. Bowser shocked everyone by paying for their stay. They all were in the waiting room, when she entered.

"We heard about what happened." DK said, standing. He offered his seat to Twila, of sat down in it gratefully.

"Thanks, DK." She said.

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Skolar orbed into Professor Gadd's garage, with the energy reader. He found Gadd, working on a computer.

"The energy reader worked like a charm." He said.

"What did you pick up with it?" Gadd asked, turning around in his seat.

"I picked up high readings of Solar Energy, 400 Kilos, to be exact. I picked up traces of orb trails, too. What do you make of it?" Skolar asked.

"Any sun goes supernova at 200 kilos, plug it in right here." Gadd said.

Skolar plugged the black box into the computer, and watched Gadd work. Gadd typed in a command, and a black screen came up with several differently colored lines running through it. Each line was a different color. On the bottom of the screen, an orange line traveled up and down with perfect curves, each line over the orange line was less curved, and bounced up and down erratically.

"That is strange. Brightons output of solar energy is low. He was working at 20 kilos, and dropped down to -20 kilos with perfect rhythm. A normal Sun works anywhere between 30 and 40 Kilos. Why was Brighton working at a low level, yesterday?" Gadd asked.

"He could be going into cool down." Skolar mused, "What about the other lines?"

"The red line is orb energy, the yellow line is Solances solar energy output, he was working at 37 kilos, normal for him, the red line should drop off the graph. It is impossible to get orb readings like these. These other lines, one is a warp reading, and the other is a flame reading, and they belong to Brighton, and Solance." Gadd explained.

"Lets isolate the orb line, and see what happens." Skolar said.

"Isolating it now," Gadd said, "And playing it back now."

What Skolar heard next made his blood run cold. From the speakers, screams of sheer terror, and voices flowed into the room.

"Leave the Shroob Galaxy! Solar Squall!"

"Like that is going to slow them down, Sol!"

"I don't hear any ideas from you, Bri!"

"l haven't thought of any yet! Sol!"

"You two are pathetic!"

"Prepare to be destroyed."

"Yea! What they said!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it!"

"Sol! You can't beat them! Don't be stupid!"

"Celestial Fire Incineration!"

"Sol!"

"You are next."

"SOL! YOU KILLED SOL!"

"you wanna join him?"

"YOU MURDERERS! CELESTIAL THUNDERBOLT! SMASH!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"You destroyed one of us."

"Gee, ya think?"

"Wah! He was Oww! What was that for?"

"You are an idiot."

"I know!"

"Are you two done arguing yet? Here is a Celestial Thunderbolt! Smash! To remember me by!"

"Oww. That hurt. Here is our parting gift."

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"What is this?" Skolar asked.

"Its Sol, and Bri's last moments alive. One of the beings they fought sounded almost robotic in nature. The question now is, Who are they?" Gadd swiveled his chair around to look at the Star Spirit.

"Make me a copy. I am going to show this to Eldstar. He may know who they are." Skolar said.

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Twila watched the doors leading into the OR. She felt nervous inside for some reason, and it scared her. After what seemed like days, Dr. Harmony came out of the room, her face creased in sorrow. Twila felt her heart leap into her throat, and her stomach did a flip flop.

"Twila, come." Dr. Harmony said.

Twila got up and followed. She was lead into Harmony's office.

"Mario did beautifully in surgery, but we ran into a complication with Brighton. I am afraid he didn't make it through surgery. He suffered from a grand mal seizure, and we were unable to resuscitate him. I am sorry." Harmony said.

"No, no, no, no, not Brighton, he can't be gone!" Twila felt someone shaking her.

"Wake up, Twila!" Someone ordered, "Or I'll barbeque you alive!"

Twila's eyes shot open, and Bowser barely had time to step backward to avoid getting hit by Twilas head.

"I am okay. I had a bad dream. I'll be fine." Twila said, sitting back down, and calming herself. It wasn't much longer until Dr. Harmony came out of the OR.

"Mario did beautifully, and will be fine once he awakens from the anesthesia. We had a few tense moments with Brighton, but he is doing fine. We are keeping him inside the OR for now incase of further complications. If he can get through the next forty-eight hours without another respiratory or cardiac incident, We will move him back to the ICU, and possibly start weaning him off of the anesthesia keeping him in the coma." Dr. Harmony said, "Up to two people at a time inside the OR, and as soon as Mario is able, you may visit him too."

"Mario donated a part of his liver to save Brighton's life." Peach explained to the others.

"Twila should be first to see Brighton, and who is going with her?" Bowser asked.

Eleanor stood.

"I'll go with her." The periwinkle blue shelled Nokis said, following Twila.

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Queen Sunstar: Thus concludes chapter two. I am having major computer problems, and you may not hear from me until sometime after Christmas. My computer is dying slowly. I do have limited access to a laptop, meaning I can only be on the laptop for up to two hours a day, and updates to any of my stories will be slower then I originally thought. For those of you looking for new computers, don't go to Gateway. First my laptop battery blew up my laptop after eleven monthes, now my computer is dying, after six years of dutiful service. I plan to get a Dell after this one finally dies. Gateway computers are nothing but trouble.

Twila: Hey, the screen is flickering from normal colors to dull, yellow tinted colors.

Queen Sunstar: Twila, we are waiting.

Twila: I know, I was having fun watching the monitor flicker. Don't forget to review!