Higher Further Faster (Universe 13,400,063)

Chapter 35

"You okay?" Carol asked with concern. 

"Yeah. I'm fine." Thor lied, not wanting to draw attention to himself. 

"What's bothering you Sparkles?"

"Nothing."

"That is the worst lie I have ever heard."

"I'm stressed. That's pretty much it."

"What is there to be stressed about? Your brother Loki wants us at his movie premiere."

"That's not why I'm stressed."

"You really need to be more explanatory."

"I am barely functioning with two hours of sleep. It sucks so bad."

"Why in the world are you only getting two hours of sleep?"

"I can't seem to stay asleep. I don't know why."

"Have you tried sleeping pills?"

"Yup. Those didn't work."

"Calming music?"

"I've tried everything. Nothing has worked."

Thor brushed his hand through his hair, sighing slowly. He was exhausted, and barely managing to stay awake.

"We got a training course today, but we're going to have to cancel it." Carol told him. 

"Don't cancel it. I can still manage." Thor pleaded. 

"You look like you're going to fall asleep at any moment."

"I can still go."

"You need to sleep."

"What happened to him?" Rhodey asked. 

"He's sleep deprived but he still wants to go to the training course." Carol was very concerned. 

"That's a bad idea." Rhodey said. 

"I can still go." Thor argued. 

"Not today buddy." Carol looked back at him. 

"Let me go."

"Nope."

Thor stood up from the bench, ignoring Rhodey and Carol. He started walking away from them, but ended up passing out instead.

"Can someone help me?" Carol called out. 

Carol attempted to pick up Thor, but couldn't do it. Rhodey ran to help her, and told someone to get Fury. 

"On three, we're going to lift him." Carol replied. 

"Are you even trying?" Rhodey heaved. 

They lifted him with the combined effort of teamwork, and slowly moved towards the medical bay. Fury met up with them halfway, wanting to know what had happened.

"He passed out from lack of sleep." Carol said. 

"Was he trying to pull an all nighter?" Fury wondered. 

"No. He told me he couldn't sleep."

"This is bad..."

"What are you talking about?"

"Remember what we found back in Laos?"

"The file?"

"Thor was the only surviving one after given the serum."

"What does this have to do with anything? I thought you got fixed him."

"It's not that easy. Even the best scientists didn't know what to do. The serum keeps changing and we can't do anything about it."

"There must be something we can do."

"I've tried, but it looks like he's stuck as an genetically modified human. It must be the serum that's affecting his brain."

"We don't even know what the serum does except it increases strength. It could be killing him but we wouldn't know it."

"Did you find anything else on the file other than Thor was the only successful one?"

"We did, but the Russians must've put an anti hacker program on it because not even Romanoff could get into it."

"Stark could." Rhodey joined in. 

"He makes planes." Fury said. 

"He is really good with hacking. He made his own A.I." Rhodey continued. 

"I thought you said the stuff he showed you was useless Rhodey." Carol raised an eyebrow. 

"At the time it was, but he's the best shot we got at helping Thor." Rhodey said. 

"Where is Stark when we need him?" Carol asked. 

"I'll get Stark. You two bring Odinson to the medical bay." Fury commanded. 

Fury ran past them towards his office, and they continued what they were doing. When they got there, they placed him on one of the beds. Carol sat down on one of the chairs, resting from carrying him.

"He's heavy." Rhodey stated. 

"I'm am never doing this again." Carol breathed. 

"We have to wait for Fury. Hopefully Stark actually agrees with him." 

"How could we have not seen this earlier?" 

"Thor's really good at hiding his emotions. He could be angry and we wouldn't even know it." 

"I'm am so dumb." 

"No you're not. He's going to be okay." 

"I really don't want to lose him a second time." 

"We'll figure it out. Stark knows what he is doing." 

Carol looked up at the sleeping Thor, who hadn't moved in the last hour. She wanted him to wake up, just to let her know he was okay. Every minute she waited for Fury to show up, it felt like an eternity.