Adam had barely lowered his hand when the full shock hit him.
He had done that.
He had done that in real life, not in a game or a video. He had raised his arm, and a giant crystal spike had burst out of the street hard enough to kill aliens.
Above the road, Tony Stark saw it too.
Inside the Iron Man helmet, the targeting display locked onto the spike first and then onto the man standing near it.
"JARVIS," Tony said, "who is that?"
Adam's face filled one side of the display.
JARVIS answered at once. "No match found. I have no information on him."
Tony's eyes narrowed slightly behind the HUD.
On the ground, Adam was still staring at the spike like he had personally offended physics.
"Holy cow," he said. "I can make ice."
He turned halfway around with a wild smile, ready to say it to anyone nearby.
There was no one willing to listen.
People were running away from him.
That smile slowly faded.
He looked from one terrified civilian to another, then back at the crystal spike.
"Okay," Adam muttered. "That reaction is less supportive than I hoped."
He barely had time to recover before more Chitauri spotted him. Several of them angled down in his direction because of the spike.
Adam saw them coming and raised his hand again.
"Go forth, power of ice-"
Nothing happened.
Adam stayed in the pose for one very embarrassing second.
The Chitauri kept coming.
He dropped the pose instantly and turned around.
"Forget the power," he shouted while running. "Somebody save me first!"
A blast ripped through the air above him.
One of the Chitauri chasing him exploded and dropped out of the sky. Adam looked up sharply.
A Quinjet was descending nearby.
It came in low over the road, weapons firing as it cleared the space around its landing point.
Adam recognized it immediately.
'Cap's Quinjet,' Adam thought.
The aircraft touched down hard.
The rear section opened.
Captain America came out first.
Natasha Romanoff followed.
Clint Barton was with them too.
Adam stopped running for half a breath.
Then he started running again, only now he was running toward them.
He had a grin on his face again.
'Natasha Romanoff,' Adam thought. 'I am actually about to meet Natasha Romanoff.'
That thought lasted until he saw more Chitauri moving in on the Quinjet.
The jet had already taken damage from Loki earlier, and now fresh enemies were converging on it while the Avengers were still spreading out from the landing point.
Adam's feet stopped on their own.
If those aliens hit the Quinjet now, the whole situation would get worse.
He turned toward the incoming Chitauri and lifted both hands.
This time he did not say anything dramatic.
He just focused on what he wanted: a wall, cover, and something wide enough to protect the aircraft.
The road answered immediately.
Crystal surged up from the street in thick rising layers. Instead of forming one spike, it spread fast and high, folding upward until a broad crystal barrier wrapped around the vulnerable side of the Quinjet.
Enemy fire struck the wall.
One chariot clipped the upper edge and spun off course.
Steve turned at once.
So did Clint.
Natasha looked over the new barrier, then back at Adam.
The wall gleamed under the portal light, large enough to shield the damaged aircraft and solid enough to stop the next wave of shots.
Even Adam stared at it for a second.
'Okay,' he thought. 'It still looks like ice to me, but this is working.'
The Avengers moved clear of the Quinjet.
Captain America headed toward Adam first.
He looked at the crystal wall, then at the dead Chitauri near the earlier spike, and then at Adam himself.
"Did you do this?" Steve asked.
Adam heard the question.
He really should have answered it.
Instead, all of his attention had locked onto Natasha Romanoff standing a little behind Steve, weapon in hand and very much real.