Captain America noticed the problem immediately.
He had asked a direct question, but the strange man in front of him was not looking at the wall, the Quinjet, or the dead aliens nearby.
Adam was looking past him.
At Natasha.
Steve followed that line once, understood everything, and cleared his throat.
That snapped Adam back at once.
He straightened like he had been caught doing something illegal, then looked at Steve and answered in complete seriousness.
"Yes, sir."
He even gave a quick salute.
Clint stared at him for a second. "Is this guy a joker?"
Natasha kept watching Adam and said in an even tone, "Looks like it."
Adam's mouth opened, but Tony's voice cut in before he could defend himself.
"Give him a comm device."
Natasha stepped forward at once and held out an earpiece.
Adam looked at the device, then at Natasha, and then back at the device again.
He was trying very hard to behave like a normal person.
It was not going well.
Natasha also noticed and looked entirely unsurprised by it.
Steve said, "It's important."
That got Adam moving.
"Right," he said quickly. "Serious moment."
He took the earpiece and put it in.
Even then, his hand brushed Natasha's for the smallest second, and Adam had to fight the urge to react to that like an idiot.
'There is an alien invasion happening,' Adam thought. 'Behave.'
The second the comm connected, Tony's voice came through clearly.
"Can you make another big one?"
Adam froze.
Tony Stark was talking to him.
Actually talking to him.
Through an Avenger comm.
In the middle of the Battle of New York.
Every useful thought left his head.
"Tony Stark, I'm a huge fan of yours," Adam blurted out.
Silence hit the group at once.
Clint looked at Adam like he had just fallen over in the middle of a war briefing.
High above them, Tony also said nothing for a second.
That second was long enough for Adam to realize how badly he had handled that.
'Why am I like this?' Adam thought.
"Sorry," he said quickly. "That came out wrong."
It still did not sound good.
If he had been anywhere else, Adam would have wanted the ground to open under him. Instead he had to survive the embarrassment while aliens screamed over Manhattan.
Clint let out a breath that sounded dangerously close to a laugh.
Tony finally answered. "Good to know. Can we survive first and discuss the fan club later?"
Adam swallowed.
"Yes," he said. "That seems fair."
Another explosion rolled through the avenue. Smoke drifted between wrecked cars. Somewhere farther down the block, civilians were still shouting while more Chitauri dropped between the buildings.
Steve cut across the awkward moment before it could grow worse.
"What's the situation on the ground?"
That changed Adam immediately.
The joking look left his face. He turned and looked out over the street properly this time.
People were running without direction. Some pushed each other by accident. Some froze just to stare at the sky. Others tried to help strangers but had no idea where to send them.
The real problem became obvious the longer Adam looked.
Even the people who wanted to help did not know what safe looked like anymore.
That made everything worse.
Adam answered without joking.
"People are panicking," he said. "They're running everywhere, and nobody knows where safe is."
He watched a woman drag two children into a doorway while three other people sprinted the opposite direction for no reason at all.
Then he added more quietly, "Right now everyone is just running out of control."